Just me and Greg at practice tonight. Trying to better sombre times for the virtual swim league in a few events over the next couple of weeks, although with work and pool closures I'm not sure how many I can redo.

The holiday season is a wonderful time of year to celebrate the joy of giving to and sharing with others. Coaches give of themselves throughout the year striving to make the experience of swimming the best it can be for those they lead.

What gift do you have that you share with your swimmers? Don’t confuse giving with gifting. You give your time. You gift what you do with that time. You give a workout. You gift the promise of hope. You give the swimmers feedback on stroke technique. You gift the swimmers self-confidence and pride of accomplishment.

This holiday, realize what gift you have that you can share now and into the future. Resolve to be better tomorrow than you were today. In sharing your gifts and enriching others, both giver and receiver benefit. Wishing you and your swimmers a happy and healthy new year.

3x200 3:10 (2x90%)+5s
4x150 p 2:30 br3/5/7
2x200 3:20 (2x90%)
4x50 p :50 br4 d1-4
1x200 fast
//This set did *not* go well. I think I misunderstood what 90% was supposed to be on the warmup, besides the fact that I just am missing endurance. Need to work on being able to maintain speed if I ever want to be decent at anything longer than a 100 again...

Right shoulder about 70% way to full recovery and whatever was damaged appears surgically fixed. Hand still aches and tingling -probably axial nerve pressure which may improve with regain in strength.

Left shoulder I plan on addressing early next year. MR with contrast report highlights: “circumferential tear of labrum with displaced fragments into axillary recess along inferior and posterior inferior labrum”, “biceps anchor and superior labrum are nearly completely denuded”, “glenoid thickening”, and “Hill-Sachs impaction fracture” among others. Whatever that means, it doesn’t sound normal. On a good note, my rotator cuff group like the right side, is good. I am looking forward to having this worked on. I’ve been swimming with this train-wreck in my arm since the day I learned proper swimming just over 10 years ago. This recent 2 month break from swimming jumping back in yesterday (like a reset) really exposed this limitation, which I learned to ignore out of necessity during years of stroke development. If this will be a successful outcome, I reckon I will have to redevelop stroke by scratch. I will continue to swim leading up to it

Well I didn't even throw any weight on yesterday in my first leg lift, but holy hell my legs were sore today. The last 500 was a struggle. Felt like I was dragging concrete blocks behind me. Going to have to better map out my workouts now that I am adding lifting back into the mix. I plan to lift arms tomorrow and then do a recovery practice, but that means Friday may be rough if I am as sore again then as I was today!

, December 11th, 2018 at 10:26 PM (Maple Syrup with a Side of Chlorine)

200 swim/100 kick/200 pull [did extra 200]

2 x
- 1 x 250 on 5:00 [did 300s: 3:41, 3:36]
- 3 x 100 on 2:00 even pace [did back]
- 2 x 100 on 2:00 descend
- 1 x 50 ez on 2:00
[Masters/Rec/2400 yds/55 min]
==========================
Still a bit sore from the meet on Saturday and decided that the last round of 100s would be the warmdown so we could have some sauna time.

100 FR - 51.09 (24.70/26.39) - Spun my wheels and didn't nail my turns like I wanted to. Would have liked to have been under 51. But really can't complain.

400 EZ (100 swim/100 kick w/ BD) w/ SNKL

100 BK - 1:02.47 (30.65/31.79) - My throwaway event. I never race backstroke so I figured, "why not?" Second 50 was much better than the first 50.

600 EZ (100 swim/100 kick w/ BD) w/ SNKL

100 FL - 55.98 (26.30/29.68) - Best race of the afternoon. Was really happy with this time given all the racing I had already done prior. Locked up a little bit on the last 4-5 strokes, but really felt in control for the rest of the race.

400 EZ (100 swim/100 kick w/ BD) w/ SNKL

200 I.M. - 2:06.81 (26.74/33.73/36.76/29.58) - By this point I was starting to run on fumes. Wasn't sure what to expect from this race. Happy with the time and effort for right now, but it definitely exposed the fact that I have not done any serious I.M. training!

600 EZ (100 swim/100 kick w/ BD) w/ SNKL

50 FR - 23.53 (11.20/12.33) - Had to breathe twice to get through it. Doug actually recorded the race (unbeknownst to me at the time). When I can figure out how to get it off my phone I will post it. It was a whole lot of flailing propped up with a whole lot of kicking.

200 EZ

Total: 4550

Really wanted to push my body to the limit with this meet. High race volume and short turnaround. Today's session from the start of warm-up to the end of the meet was only 3 hours.

, December 8th, 2018 at 09:39 PM (Maple Syrup with a Side of Chlorine)

I had a good night's sleep and checked into the meet online before heading down to swim during day 2 of the New England scm champs. I was able to get two guys from my workout group to join me and it worked out that our college guy Noah picked me up and drove to meet Greg who drove the rest of the way to the meet. Worcester, MA, is about 2.5 hours from home and since my first event wasn't scheduled until 12:30ish we were able to not feel too rushed driving down.

Once at the pool we found our buddies from the Pittsfield Y and Simon's Rock teams to sit with and I got in for warmups. Did my 1200 standard in the scy side of the pool that was available for warmup/down throughout the meet while the women swam the 400 free. I felt good and decided against swimming any extra before my first race:

event 12: 50 fly - 30.28
- I had a solid swim although I hoped to get under 30. My start underwaters were not great but I nailed them off the turn. Happy with the swim.

At this point there was a scheduled 30 minute break, so I hopped into the competition pool and swam 700 meters including a few sprints to play with the backstroke wedges, which I only see at these championship meets. I also ate half of a PBJ sandwich I brought along. I didn't warm up again before swimming:

event 14: 200 back - 2:27.59
34.88
37.21 (1:12.09)
37.46
38.04 (1:15.50)
Super excited to come in under 2:30, and this time was 4 seconds faster than last year! I stuck to my plan of starting strong then building into the second 50 before attacking the last 100, and aside from dying a bit at the end I felt like I executed the plan well. My underwaters are not the greatest due to lack of endurance so there is room for improvement there. Should hold up for a Top Ten time. Did 300yds and got on deck to watch Noah and Greg in the 50 free and barely catch my breath for my swim:

event 16: 50 free - 27.69
Tired but pumped to get under 28. I was probably a little too conservative on the first lap but locked down for the finish. Hopped in for 400y warmdown and then rested leading into the 400 MR. I have a long shot at making TT in the 100 back and we were able to get help from Pittsfield by having Jack swim with us (although the points didn't count since we are different workout groups). The order was Mike, Greg, Jack, Noah and we all had a fun time swimming in a relay!

event 24: 400 MR (100 back split) - 1:08.30
33.67/34.63
I was aiming to get under 1:10 and felt strong and in control during the entire swim. I employed my strong/build/fast/fast strategy and was able to hit my underwaters at 8/7/5/4 - less than I wanted on the last two walls. We came in at 5:09 and had a great time.

I finished off with 400 yards warmdown and we headed back to VT. I am a bit sore but really happy to have not only swam well myself but also share in the experience with some of my teammates. Some monster swims were thrown down on both the mens and womens side - swim phone results here: https://www.swimphone.com/meets/even...cfm?smid=10937

200 FR - 1:55.30 (26.42/29.42/29.64/29.82) - I was a little hurried with my stroke and had trouble settling into the race. This has always been a problem for me, and the 200 doesn't provide a lot of time to "settle in." Probably why this is my least favorite freestyle distance to race.

This race was 25 minutes after my 200. I was stuck in third gear until the last 75 yards. Did not feel like I died though. I felt good throughout the race. The age groupers on either side of me shot off to fast starts. This was nice because it forced me to just swim my own race, and by the 200, I had reeled them in and passed them. By the 300, I was several body-lengths ahead of the field.

600 EZ (100 FR/100 kick w/ BD) w/ SNKL

Total: 3500

SHOUT OUT: Trip, who did the same double as me. He got one extra heat of the 200 to rest since he was the heat before me. He was a VERY respectable 2:02/5:37 (the latter was a new Arkansas Masters record). Doug also simultaneously swam an amazing 50 FR and a terrible 200 FR. He was going for a 50 split (23.60). I am not sure he would want me to post his overall 200 FR time here, and honestly it took so long for him to finish I lost interest in the race and stopped paying attention

The cold is still sticking around, consequently I haven't slept that well the past few days and am having some trouble breathing right. Performance is about what you'd expect given that. 25s were good, 50s were OK, everything else was pretty bad.